The First Relaxed Kite Flying of the Year!?

No way!

Yes, way …

This year has been decidedly odd (and the weather has, for the most part, shown a marked aversion to kites). It’s March already, and we have managed exactly one (1) kite aerial photography session and this single, blissfully relaxed kite-flying outing – our grand total for the year so far.

All right, to be fair, we did enjoy two magnificent kite festivals: NIKF Izola and TCIEINKF Stožice, so it hasn’t been a complete aerodynamic famine. Still, for those of us who measure time in metres of line unspooled, it feels like a slow start.

As we cautiously escort winter out the door and welcome Spring – a generous, capricious Spring, with wind in her pockets – we find ourselves returning to our cosiest flying spot: Ljubljana Marshes Landscape Park. The marshes have a way of making even the most tangled bridle seem philosophically insignificant.

It was time to air the kites properly, to let them stretch their seams and reacquaint themselves with the sky, and to check whether anything had quietly unravelled during the darker months. Tangles were untangled, bridles were sorted, and knots were tightened. A perfectly ordinary, and necessary, post-winter maintenance.

There isn’t much to report. The wind began obligingly, grew a touch temperamental later (as winds tend to do when they realise they are being relied upon), and the sun made a polite appearance. It was warm, it was pleasant … It was exactly what we needed.

Everything flew; the sky monsters were swaying, spinning, occasionally showing off, and when the wind faded, each kite descended with quiet dignity, settling gently onto the flat marshy ground.

We were also honoured by a visit from a veritable Indian princess – a charming former stray dog – accompanied by none other than the former Ambassador of Slovenia to India. The first meeting was a bit reserved, but we could see a spark in her eyes when she saw the kites – so we promised next time she’ll get one to pull and run over the meadows.

All in all, it was a very relaxed kite-flying session, with the emphasis on relaxed. Spring is gathering speed, the winds are rehearsing, and we are more than ready to send a little colour back into the sky again.